184 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



was then 332, and of inhabitants about 2000, which may be in- 

 creased from 5 to 13 per cent. 



The register commenced in 1602 : in the first ten years there 

 were 226 births and 169 burials, and in the ten years ended 1804, 

 526 births and 425 burials, the increase in that time being as 2 to 5. 

 'ihe population principally consists of persons employed in agri- 

 culture, with a few locksmiths : there is a good resident gentry. 

 Tettenhall may be considered extremely healthy, the births to the 

 deaths being as 5 to 4 : here are no dissenters or Roman Catholics. 



There are two rivulets oj^ijfrall rivers. The Penk rises in Penk- 

 ridge-well meadows, and JKlLthrough Wrottesley and the Wergs 

 to the Dam-mill and Pendfcl&d, near which it meets a stream from 

 Chillington : these stream? form a pool to Pendeford-mill, and pass 

 through the Pendeford estate to Breewood parish. The Smestall 

 comes from the Culwell, Wolverhampton, and the Showell moat at 

 Byshbury, takes a soutti-west direction through Tettenhall and 

 Compton, where it works a mill, and another at Wight wick, and then 

 passes on for the Severn. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire 

 canal summit is north of Compton, where the lockage begins with a 

 fall of about 350 feet to the Severn, 



The face of the country is generally nearly level, with gentle 

 eminences and easy valleys, excepting a cliff or precipice, which 

 runs through the village and along Tettenhall-wood to Wightwick; 

 the land to the west keeping the level of its summit, and that to 

 the east being the valley of the Smestall and of the Caiial, whence 

 it rises gradually to Wolverhampton. 



The perspective from Tettenhall-wood is extremely picturesque : 

 the ridge of the cliff above Tettenhall church-yard commands a 

 bold and extensive view of Wolverhampton, and the surrounding 

 country. The prospect frbm the newly-erected mansion of Joseph 

 Pearson, Esq. Barrister-at-Law, is diversified and beautiful ; and 

 the seats of Francis Holyoake and P. T. Hinckes, Esqs. are not 

 inferior in point of situation, or the extent of charming scenery 

 which they embrace. 



The upland of this parish is generally a sound gravelly loam, 

 more or less strong, with an admixture of pebbles, and an under- 

 stratum of clay, sand, gravel, or rock : the lowlands generally a 

 four-foot stratum of peat upon gravel, but drained into meadow-land. 



There is a fine square grove of 80 elms upon Tettenhall-green, 

 of 90 years* growth, some of which contain upwards of 100 feet of 

 timber : the Wrottesley estate has some good coppices of oak. 





